The 10 Best Game Review Sites

August 17, 2017

Consumers like to know what they’re getting into before they spend their money on a product or service. It’s been common practice to search for the opinion of a professional reviewer online before people buy a video game. There are some who are totally opposed to the video game review system due to its shortcomings, but the practice seems like it will be around for a while longer. Until that time arrives, here are the some of the best game review sites.

Metacritic 1360

Metacritic takes reviews written by the best game review sites and lumps their individual scores and averages them into a single number. For example, Sonic Mania for PlayStation 4 was given a score of 86/100 based on 45 reviews. A game will receive a single score for every platform it releases on, but some games don’t receive many reviews on certain platforms, which may inflate or decrease their score.

IGN 322

IGN has become one of the largest sources for entertainment news, analysis, and reviews on the Internet. They focus on video games, but also cover other types of entertainment and art. Their game reviews are scored on a 10-point scale, with a 10 representing a “masterpiece” and typically include a video version of the review as well.

Polygon 1026

It’s important for a gaming website to cover most game releases, but more valuable than that is the quality of the reviews. Polygon is known for high quality game reviews that are more than just a score. Reviewers should allow a consumer to get a sense of whether or not they would enjoy the game before they buy it.

Eurogamer 2228

Eurogamer is one of the best game review sites because it is one of the few that doesn’t actually attach a number to their reviews. They’re more focused on having readers go through the review than come for the final score and leave without reading more than a few words. They’re based in Europe and have been around since 1999.

Edge 87068

Edge has a reputation of housing incredibly hard-to-please reviewers that seek only the highest quality games. Although they’re actually a print magazine, their voice is one of the most revered in the gaming industry and earns them a spot on our list of best game review sites. You can subscribe to their monthly issues and get them delivered to your home for some great insight into which games are good and which ones are awful.

The Escapist 7809

The Escapist is an online magazine covering a wide variety of media, as well as comics and cosplay.

One of their most unique and well-known features is Zero Punctuation!, a video game review series hosted by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw. His video reviews are vulgar, to the point, and personality driven. He’s gained a large following based on his unique review style and accompanying animation found in his videos.

GamesRadar+ 3803

It’s rare for a gaming website to review games on a scale of 1-5 stars, but GamesRadar+ does just that. They include a list of pros and cons for every review to further supplement the written review. They have accompanying video reviews with the same information if you’re not up for reading text.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun 4105

Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s PC game reviews are straight to the point. They don’t include scores, videos, or anything fancy like that. Their reviews are focused on the content of their written reviews and only include a few screenshots here and there. If you’re a game developer, you can email them about your game and request that a specific reviewer have a go at it.

PC Gamer 983

I don’t think I need to tell you what type of games PC Gamer covers. What you might not know is that PC Gamer has its own magazine, which you can buy both in digital form or in print. The website focuses on all aspects of the PC gaming industry, including hardware and esports, and of course, reviews of games.

Game Informer 8533

The last entry in our list of best game review sites is Game Informer due to their level professionalism and their print magazine. Game Informer’s reviews score games on a scale of 1-10 and break down what worked and what didn’t in a column next to the actual review. There is also a section for users to assign a score to the game, which averages out into a single score.

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